Hector Berlioz: Lélio, ou le retour à la vie; Roméo et Juliette

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Hector Berlioz Le retour á la vie is an extraordinary work. Half-literary, half-musical reflected much of the thoughts and ideas also found in his letters of the time, using music that was largely written earlier in Paris. The genesis of the work was yet another love-affair gone wrong. The six musical numbers of Lélio are wholly diverse in subject and treatment, yet a sense of order is imposed by the literary format. It is a unique assemblage, there is nothing else quite like it in all musical history. Romeo et Juliette is counted third among Berlioz's 4 symphonies. Another uniquely constructed work, it moves away from the purely symphonic towards the realm of opera. But Berlioz keeps the formal structure of a symphony firmly in his mind: the three principal instrumental sections - Fete chez Capulet, Scene d'amour, and La reine Mab - making a first movement, slow movement and scherzo encircled by elaborate vocal sections to begin and end.